Danni

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what is the most I should pay for a shift kit "LABOR" to be installed. I'm a single Mom & was told by my Dad that my car would benefit from one. I kinda have a lead foot and he said my shift kinda lag. I have a 97 Z28 and just love it. Thanks All..........Danni

Kevin Blown 95 TA

It's at least a few hours to do, and it involves removing the pan and modifying the valve body, separator plate, and accumulator & servo springs, etc, so not hard for the labor to add up. Generally, the tranny shops would be best at this, so I'd see what they want to put one in. There are also more than one level of shift kit and they are generally over engineered, but sometimes you can get a transmission place that really knows what they are doing and can piece together what you need from suppliers like Sonnax & Superior and knows how to get the pressures up by drilling the separator plate and replacing a few key parts. One question is how many miles are on your transmission, because there's also the possibility of worn out valve bores in the valve body, and those are extra work to fix. The other alternative that is less messy would be to get someone to firm up your shifts electronically, because it is controlled to some degree by the computer. But they need to know what they are doing since your transmission has adaptive shifting where it knows how long it is supposed to take to shift and if you modify that time, it may try to adjust back to a slower, more comfortable shift. One other option that is related to programming would be to wire the performance shift button that Firebirds have, but didn't come with the Camaros. It is a way of running 2 sets of shift characteristics that is switchable and also involves programming. There's tons of information buried on this site, so you can do a few searches and read up on the diffrent topics. There are also a couple transmission builders in here who can help you with more detailed information.